Tuesday, November 12, 2013

A service opportunity missed?

Last week, I went to Coonoor to participate in the
housewarming ceremony of an affluent friend from Singapore. He had built his
house inside the picturesque setting of a tea plantation! You could have tea
straight from the plant, if you felt like it! Anyway, let me not digress and
stay with the topic on hand which is the permanently intriguing subject of
customer service. Before you lose patience, let me get back to the customer
service experience that almost knocked my socks off initially, but left me a
little disappointed in the end and got me thinking about the entire service
opportunity that constantly presents itself to companies. It all started with a
phone call to my wife, who was with me, from her boss. Her boss who seemed to
be well aware of what was happening at Ooty called to say that Ramraj Textiles,
the well-known dhoti and white shirts brand, had just opened a showroom at Ooty
and could we please get him two size 42” linen shirts in white? If the
boss’ instructions are important then imagine how critical instructions from my
boss’ boss are likely to be! So we dropped everything and made our way in the pouring
rain to the showroom. Coincidentally my friend, an acknowledged service expert
had spoken about how courteous the staff at Ramraj Textiles’ showroom at
Coimbatore had been the previous day when he had visited there. We found the
showroom without too much difficulty, placed as it was in a prominent location
of Ooty.

The service story

As the showroom seemed to have opened that very day, the place
was teeming with people as the strength of the brand had prompted a lot of
people to come over. Footfalls are what
any retailer dreams about and there was no issue here. In fact with two levels,
lots of people, loud conversations, cartons being carted around … all of which
made me ask one of the assistants why there was such a racket. My wife quickly
asked me to shut up and like any dutiful husband, I promptly did. But when we
went to the shirt section things changed dramatically. When we asked for four shirts
of 42 of linen, (I felt like buying them as well), they sprang into action.
They realized that they had only one shirt of that size and asked us for a
couple of minutes to check their depot and at other outlets. Even as I was
standing in front of the counter, the cashier called outlet after outlet asking
for this particular type and size of shirt that we wanted. It was amazing to
see someone who belonged to the clerical cadre exceeding the call of duty. All
he had to tell me was that the sizes were not available and I would have gone
away quietly. But he whetted my appetite by asking me to wait while he called
various neighboring outlets like Avinashi, Mettupalayam and many others that I
can’t recall, finally sourced the shirts at Avinashi and asked someone to put
it on the bus and told me that he would pick it up early in the morning and
have it delivered. I had already told him that I would be leaving the Ooty
Gymkhana where I was staying by 9 a.m. the following morning.

The damp squib the
day after

Having whetted my appetite with superior service far
beyond my expectations, I waited for the shirts to arrive. 9 o’clock came and
went with neither shirts nor even a call from the company. I was a trifle
disappointed because the initiative of the previous night at the store had made
me hope, unreasonably perhaps. Of course, he had not specifically committed to
me as obviously the bus service was beyond his control. But he had my number,
could he not have called me and taken my Bangalore address to ship later? As I
was driving back to Bangalore there were a number of thoughts that crossed my
mind. Is this sort of initiative of calling different depots, checking
availability, etc only possible in smaller companies? Is service a function of
size? While the junior person showed so much initiative, there was no
intervention from the senior person. Do larger companies have better processes
and support systems to handle non-routine service needs? Did the company have
the capability to deliver in different cities when there was a stock out
situation? Is there opportunity for old world companies like these to learn
from companies like Flipkart and Jabong that have created new opportunities for
themselves by tapping into reliable delivery systems and procedures? Can these
companies look at selling online? After all a white shirt is a white
shirt and it is possible to sell and buy these fabrics online. Is an
opportunity being missed here?

Mind you, I have a lot of respect and regard for Ramraj Textiles
and its shirts. My wardrobe has quite a few shirts from its repertoire. I
frequently visit their showroom in some airport or the other and would like the
brand to succeed even further and was just a little disappointed that they had
promised to deliver something outstanding and then just gave up. I am sure they
are not unique in this. I am sure your company and mine is missing
opportunities like this every day.

The question is, are you aware of the missed opportunity?

Ramanujam Sridhar
is Director in Custommerce and the Founder CEO of brand-comm.